The Making of the President, 1789: The Unauthorized Campaign Biography

Readers who fondly remember Kitman's "George Washington's Expense Account" will delight in Kitman's latest skewering of the first "prefident". In a style mimicing the genre of presidencial campaign histories. The author reveals how Washington rose from a poor Virginia surveyor who by luck, planning and social skills (Kitman refers to him as "The Minuet Man" at times) to become the only choice as the first president. Kitman's style is modern satire, but he scrupulouusly footnotes his sources, quotes the famed Washington biographers and overall certainly lends a air of truth and convictiion to his narrative, even if it will enflame all the True Belivers. His humor does get heavy handed at times and by the last third of the book the show more witicisms seem somewhat strained, but there's real history to be uncovered here. show less

The Making of the President 1789 The Unauthorized Campaign Biography, by Marvin Kitman (read 8 May 2016) This 1989 book gives evidence of a lot of research and has many footnotes as well as an interesting bibliography. It aims at undeifying Washington and does make one question some of what Washington did, especially as one knows that he really had little success as a general even though he won. As Kitman says, the score was the British 9, the Americans 2. I laughed a lot as I read some parts but as is often the case some of his humorous sallies fell flat with me. I couldn't help but be a little shocked at how his innuendoes led one to suspect Washington of not being the monumentally upright man he is usually depicted as. As one fully show more familiar with the political events before 1989 his sallies comparing Washington's behavior with 20th century events was appreciated, though I could understand that some might miss the parallels. show less